Marcus Casillas

Solar Rotation

Abstract

In this lab we used the BU Solar Telescope to measure the rotation of the Sun by two

different methods, the Doppler shift of spectral lines and the movement of Sunspots.

Introduction

Like all other bodies in the Solar System the Sun rotates about an axis at a certain

velocity. The purpose of this lab is to determine what that rotational velocity is using

equipment here on Earth. We have two methods of doing this, one takes advantage of

the doppler shift of electromagnetic waves emitted by the Sun by examining the way the

wavelengths of light are stretched on each side as one approaches and one moves

away from the viewer. The second way of finding the rotational velocity is to track the

motion of sunspots across the surface of the Sun over a period of days.

Procedure

The first method used to measure the rotation of the Sun was to measure the Doppler

shift of the spectral lines for Sodium when looking at opposite sides of the Sun. The first

step in doing this was to take two images on opposite sides of the Sun. With these two

images we first had to determine the plate scale for the telescope. To do this, we first

identified the two Sodium lines that we would be using then found the distance between

them in pixels on our image. We then used to previously taken and labeled Solar

spectrum and found the known wavelengths and distance between the two lines in

nanometers. We could then take these two distances and divide for a plate scale ratio of

nanometers per pixel. With the plate scale determined, we can compare our images for
each side of the Sun and measure the movement of the spectral lines on each side, first

in pixels, then using the plate scale to convert to nanometers. We can then simply set

up a ratio that states that the change in wavelength over the known base wavelength is
2
equal to twice the velocity over the speed of light ( =
). Thus, the rotational velocity

can be found by simply solving for .

The second method used was to measure the movement of Sunspots on the Suns

surface. To do this, we first took observations of the Sun with the BU Solar Telescope

over the course of a few days, marking the locations of some prominent Sunspots. We

then used overlays of latitude and longitude lines to find the coordinates of the Sun

spots on each day. Then, by comparing these coordinates, we found the rotational

speed of the Sun in degrees per hour. Then, using the circumference of the Sun we

converted that measurement into terms of meters.

Data Analysis

In the spectroscopy method, we first found the plate scale of our spectrometer by

measuring the distance in pixels between our Sodium lines and dividing that from the

known distance between the lines, which was 0.597 nm.

0.597
= 0.00197 /
303

We could then use the plate scale to find the change in wavelength of each spectral line

over the two images in terms of nanometers. We then took the average change in
2
wavelength between both of the Sodium lines and entered it into the formula =
and

solved for velocity .

 (0.00197)(3 108 /)
= 501 /
2(589.592 )

Sodium Line

Trial 1D1 0.00197 nm 589.592 nm 501 m/s

Trial 1 D2 0.00395 nm 588.995 nm 1005 m/s

Trial 2 D1 0.00591 nm 589.592 nm 1504 m/s

Trial2 D2 0.00591 nm 588.995 nm 1505 m/s

Averaging our velocity values we found that the rotational velocity was 1129 m/s.

We then found the rotational velocity by the Sunspot method. This was done by finding
the change in longitude each time the measurements were taken for certain sunspots. It
was found that the longitude changed, on average 0.59 degrees per hour. We then
divided the Suns circumference (4373097 km) by 360 degrees to find that there are
12147 km in each degree, meaning our sunspots were travelling at 7167 km/h, which
can be converted to 1991 m/s
Error Analysis

Both methods had sources of error. The error in the spectroscopy method was found to

be more significant as error in the calculation of the plate scale was propagated into all

the other measurements taken in nanometers, which within themselves had a lot of

error, especially for trial 1. The only error accounted for with the sunspot method was

differences in the measurements over time, especially for spots 4 and 5 which came far

apart and were very different from 1 through 3 which all seemed to agree. However this

error actually brought us closer to the actual value of the velocity after working through

the equation.
Conclusion

Using the two methods, we found fairly accurate measurements of the rotation of the

Sun, which is actually 1997 m/s. The spectroscopy method was found to be more

inaccurate than the Sunspot method despite it seeming like the more inaccurate method

based on the instruments being used.